by Anny Scoones
When a male turtle is attracted to a female, he entices her by stroking and tickling her head for fifteen minutes! (Oh, there’s nothing like a head massage—it’s heaven. When someone massages my head, I succumb to a lovely trance, but unlike the turtle, it has nothing to do with sex.) When the female turtle is ready to lay her eggs, she chooses a place that is warm, faces south, and is easy digging. The temperature of the eggs determines the gender of the babies. If the nest is cooler, there will be more males hatched.
Researching a little bit about turtles on a drizzly, raw winter’s afternoon, I found some very interesting facts. There are three hundred species of turtles on the planet; forty-four live in Canada, and four are native to British Columbia—our western painted turtle, the western pond turtle, the green sea turtle, and the leatherback. The sea turtles eat jellyfish, which is why I pick up trash on the beaches—sea turtles mistake plastic for jellyfish and choke on it.
An article in our local paper reported on a species of turtle never before seen in our local waters, the Olive Ridley turtle. It’s a warm-water sea turtle, so why is it here? They nest on the Californian and Mexican coasts and are considered threatened in the United States. The difference between a tortoise and a turtle is that tortoises are terrestrial and have a heavier shell.
Eighty-four percent of the fish in Elk and Beaver Lakes are the pumpkinseed sunfish; although it has a pretty name (I have visions of a golden, elegant fish gliding amongst the pond grasses), this sunfish is an introduced species. One native fish in the lake is the prickly sculpin, with not such a pretty name! The lake is stocked annually with our native rainbow trout (another pretty name), which attract the fishermen.
On the south side of the lake, the path winds its way under willow trees and past pocket beaches and meadows of wildflowers. It is worth a short stop at the Nature House, a little brick nook tucked amongst the woods, just down from the parking lot. The Nature House contains displays on everything from the various types of bird nests to posters describing what a group of jellyfish is called—a smack! (Other groups of animals are thus: a murder of crows, a charm of finches, a prickle of porcupines, a parliament of owls, and a knot of toads.) Those would be quite the neighbourhoods!
This seems a fitting end to our neighbourhood observations, with the place where so many residents congregate to admire Victoria’s beauty: to stroll and stop for a salal berry on the lakeshore; to drift in a little rowboat in the lily pads with a fishing line; to watch the birds going about their daily activities in the reeds; to walk in the forest with a loyal dog companion, or to sit amongst the wildflowers with the sun’s heat on your back and have a little think, because you never know what discovery or thought may come upon you at any moment. A thought or discovery might change your life, or simply give you a moment’s joy, whether it be seeing the winter return of the little harlequin duck bobbing on a misty green sea-storm day, or puzzling over a piece of public art gleaming in the sun, or wondering if Captain Cook really did have such lovely legs as he stands over Victoria and its neighbourhoods.
The History of Elk and Beaver Lakes
The land around these lakes, like most other parts of the region, was home for thousands of years to First Nations. But when Victoria was establishing itself and spreading out toward the peninsula, it needed much of the resources, such as freshwater, and in the 1850s, the City purchased the entire peninsula for 386 wool blankets.
At this time, Elk and Beaver Lakes were separate, but they became one when engineers dammed nearby Colquitz Creek. The water was pumped into town, but the residents complained of tadpoles in their drinking water! So filter beds were built at the lake. The lake was also used for skating and swimming; in the 1930s and ’40s, there was a popular tea house, an outdoor dance hall, and a chocolate factory! (Victoria’s water source at present is the Sooke Reservoir).
Index
A
American Bullfrog, 153
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 44–45, 61, 68, 69
B
Beacon Drive In, 33
Beacon Hill Park, vi, 15, 33, 36, 57, 48, 64, 75
Beaven, Ada G., 49
Beckley Farm, 10
Belfry Theatre, 85, 92, 93
Bell, Marilyn, Monument to, 22
Bigleaf Maple, 131, 132
Birdcages, 58, 61, 63
Birdcages Walk Confectionary, 58
Boatbuilders, 143–144
Borden Mercantile, 100
Broadmead, 100, 101
Brentwood Bay, 143, 145
Bulrushes, 101, 154–155
Burls, 131, 132
Butchart Gardens, The, 144
C
Cadboro Bay Book Company, 119
Cadboro Bay Business Association, 123
Cadboro Bay Village, 119–121
Cadborosaurus, 122
Cadboro, Ship, 120
Cairn Park, 114
Canadian Forces Military Museum, 116
Carr, Emily, 14–15, 45
Chinatown, 32, 83
Chinese Benevolent Society, 54
Chinese Bone House, 55
Christ Church Cathedral, 79, 80
Cole Island, 110, 111
Compost Education Centre, Fernwood, 87
Cook, Captain James, 39, 75, 76, 141, 157
Cook Street Village, 38–40, 41, 85
Coopers, 142
Cridge, Edward, 66
Church of Our Lord, 66
D
Dallas, A.G., 20
Dallas Road, 6, 12, 17, 20, 21, 22, 25, 29, 30, 33, 34–35, 36, 57, 64, 155
Darband Tea House, 89
Douglas, Sir James, 20, 39, 41, 63, 79
E
Elk and Beaver Lakes, 89, 153–155, 156, 157
Elk and Beaver Lakes, Nature House, 156
Empress Hotel, 57, 68, 70–72, 73, 75, 89
Empress Jam, 129
F
Farriers, 143
Fernwood Inn, 86, 92
Feys and Hobbs, 50
First Nations, 13, 15, 63, 73, 74, 75, 77, 104, 113, 114, 117, 120, 132, 135, 141, 157
Fisherman’s Wharf, 31
Four Mile Pub, 109
Fox, Terry, Monument to, 33
G
Garry Oak Meadows, 47, 49, 52, 53, 114
Giant Pacific Octopus, 31, 34–35
Glamorgan Farm, 6, 7, 24, 28, 30
Gorge Waterway, 89, 103–106, 109, 114
Gorge Waterway Initiative, 105
Gorse, 22, 29, 155
Government House Gardens, 44, 47
Goward House, 123–124
Great Horned Owl, 128
Guinness Family, 101
Gyro Park, 120
H
Harbour Ferries, 31, 73, 103
Harbour Seals, 31
Harlequin Duck, 22, 157
Harling Point Chinese Cemetery, 44, 54
Harman, Jack, Sculpture by, 64
Haro Wood, 125
Hawthorn Trees, 10, 19, 21, 91, 135, 146
Hedgerows, 37, 42, 47, 68, 70, 88, 141, 143, 146
Heirloom Apples, 42
Honey Bees, 37, 42, 47, 68, 70, 88, 141
Hops, 135, 136
Hudson’s Bay Company, 20, 52, 63, 79
Humboldt Valley, 66–67, 69
I
Inner Harbour, 1, 10, 31, 39, 57, 65, 66, 73, 75, 77, 103, 104, 106
Invasive Plants, 30, 88, 101, 129, 135, 152, 155
Island View Beach, 150–151, 153
Ivy’s Bookshop, 50
J
James Bay Coffee and Books, 33
James Bay Inn, 58
Jevne, Clayton, 92
L
Lam, David, Former Lieutenant-Governor, 47
Lampson Street School, 114
Lawn Bowling, 65–66
Lekwungen-Songhees Nation, 75
Lemon Sponge, 31
Lion’s Mane Jellyfish, 34
M
Mayhew, Elza, Sculpture by, 65, 69
Mile Zero, 33
Monterey Centre, 54
Mortimer-Lamb, Harold, 15
Moss Street Market, 54
Mount St. Mary Hospital, 68–69
Mudlarking, 105
Mushroom Gathering, 124, 126–127
Mystic Vale, 125, 129
N
Naden, Canadian Forces Base 113, 116
Native Plant Garden, Oak Bay, 49
Netherlands Carillon, 1, 65
Nootka Rose, 21, 29, 135, 141
North Saanich, 6, 140, 141
O
Oak Bay Village, 50–52
Ottavio’s Italian Deli and Bakery, 50
Ogden Point, 12, 13
Old Cemeteries Society, 44, 79
Oystercatchers, 22, 25
P
Pacific Chiton, 23, 30, 34
Paint Box, The, 90, 94
Painted Ladies, 17
Pease Family, 129
Penny Farthing, The , 49, 50
Parliament Buildings, viii, 10, 61–64, 70, 77
Pemberton Memorial Chapel, 95
Peninsula’s Streams, Restoration, 152
Pest House, 21
Pic A Flic Video, 39
Pioneer Square, 79
Point Ellice Bridge, 103
Public Art, 1, 12, 54, 64, 75, 85, 95, 98, 111, 114, 146, 157
Purdy, Al, 148
Purple Glass, Sidewalks, 77
Q
Queen’s Printer, 61
Queenswood, 124
Quilts, 132
Quince, 17, 42
R
Rattenbury, Francis, 61, 63, 70
Rithet, Robert, 101
Rithet’s Bog, 100, 101
Roadside Stands, 131, 135, 136, 139
Ross Bay Cemetery, 42–44
Royal BC Museum, 64–65, 68, 75
Royal Jubilee Hospital, 95
Roxy Theatre, 99
S
Saanich Inlet, 140, 143, 144
Saanich Fair, 6, 30, 139–140
Scotch Broom, 152, 155
Scott, Nathan, 147
Selkirk Trestle, 89, 106
Spiral Café, 108
Sisters of St. Ann, 44, 68, 124
Songhees People, 75, 120
Spring Ridge Commons, 89
St. Ann’s Academy, 67, 68
St. Joseph’s Hospital, 68
St. Stephen’s Church, 137, 138
Swallows, 128–129
T
Tanner’s Books, 147
Telegraph Bay, 132
Theatre Inconnu, 92, 94
Times Colonist Book Sale, 98
Truffles, 127
Tuck, Isla, 89
U
Union of British Columbia Municipalities, 60
Unity Wall, 13
Uplands Park, 49, 52
V
Vancouver, Captain George, 75, 76
Victoria Curling Rink, 98
Victoria High School, 87
Victoria International Airport, 95, 146
Victoria Police Station, Museum, 98
Village Butcher, The, 50
W
Walker, Walter M., 52
Wallace, Kate, 79
West Bay, 102, 114
Western Painted Turtle, 155–156
White Eagle Polish Hall, 12
Willows Beach, Tea House, 48, 49, 54, 55
Wilson, Victoria Jane, 44
Windsor Park, 52
Wineries, 135, 138, 142–143, 152
Wren, 1, 128, 154
Y
Yellow Sand Verbena, 151
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank my publisher, Ruth Linka, and editor, Marlyn Horsdal, for once again offering me the opportunity to write and publish my words and thoughts, and the helpful, professional staff at TouchWood Editions.
Artist and friend Robert Amos deserves a special thank-you for keeping my nose to the grindstone, providing constant words of encouragement and enthusiasm, and for our ventures out and about exploring our neighbourhoods but “never going too far away” and for recognizing the differences in the way we see things.
Thanks to Sarah Amos for providing a few of the paintings: duck, page 23; camas, page 52; both birds, page 128; swallow, page 129; turtle, page 154.
Thanks to Mikki Richards for dealing with the maddening and frustrating computer technology and technical editing, and putting up with me when I screamed in panic and thought my life was over when the screen went blue.
And thank you to those who so generously and willingly gave up their time to tell me their memories and stories, show me their neighbourhoods, and share their thoughts: Norman Morgenstern, Elizabeth Borek, Leanne Jones, Pat George and Lamont Brooks of Symphony Winery, Bill Dancer, compost and permaculture experts Marika Smith and volunteer Sandy, Heather Chatwin, Jane Henderson, Sister Frieda Raab, Joan Byers, Elizabeth Levinson, Clayton Jevne, Jean Gaudin, and Ashley Bleims.
And thank you to Joan and Hazel for the good feedback on our beach walks.
Thank you all for making Victoria’s neighbourhoods so beautiful, so kind, and so cultured.
Anny Scoones is the author of True Home: Life on a Heritage Farm and Home and Away: More Tales of a Heritage Farm, which detail her years living on historic Glamorgan Farm in North Saanich, British Columbia. Raised in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Anny has a B.Ed. from the University of Victoria as well as a diploma of humanities. She has served as an elected councillor for the District of North Saanich and now teaches English in Victoria. Anny lives in the neighbourhood of James Bay, in Victoria, British Columbia.
Robert Amos has painted thousands of pictures of the urban landscape and specializes in commissioned paintings of homes and gardens. He writes a weekly column, “On Art,” published in the Times Colonist, and is the author (and illustrator) of seven books about Victoria, including Artists in their Studios: Where Art is Born and Inside Chinatown: Ancient Culture in a New World. Robert has recently been the artist in residence at the Fairmont Empress Hotel and is an Honorary Citizen of Victoria. He was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1995. Robert lives in downtown Victoria, British Columbia.
MORE FROM ANNY SCOONES
True Home
Life on a Heritage Farm
by Anny Scoones
Following the lead of her earlier bestselling books, Anny Scoones once again charms and inspires readers with her insights and observations. Using her experiences on a farm as a backdrop, Anny muses on the environment, fate, time and aging.
In this collection of personal memoirs, Anny reaches deeper into what nature, rural life and agriculture mean to us. She explores the thrills, joys and disasters of what really happens in the countryside and nearby towns. Stories vary from a rescued dog Anny met in the town bank, to a grand old white pine tree that was given a new purpose, to a horse who couldn’t relax without blackberries, to the joys of the garage sale—even a recipe for quince jelly. The book is illustrated by renowned Canadian artists Molly Lamb Bobak and Bruno Bobak.
True Home is the third and final part of the Glamorgan Farm collection, tales of one of the oldest pioneer farms on Vancouver Island.
Home and Away
More Tales of a Heritage Farm
by Anny Scoones
In her best-selling first book, True Home: Tales of a Heritage Farm (2005), Anny Scoones introduced readers to historic Glamorgan Farm. In Home and Away, Anny presents more stories about the joys and sorrows, excitements and mishaps and also takes readers farther afield, sharing with them her travels to other parts of Canada, to New York and to such places as Malaysia and Belarus. Her travel tales offer not only her keen observations on what she sees and experiences while away, but also her perspective from afar on the importance of having a place to return to that truly is home.
Anny has owned Glamorgan Farm since 2000. Located in North Saanich, B.C., it's one of the original farms and homesteads on Vancouver Island, established in 1870 by Richard John. She is restoring the historic structures and raising heritage breeds of
livestock. The front meadows are gardened by an herb gardener and a group of mentally challenged adults who grow organic, heirloom varieties of flowers and produce.
Anny writes candidly and colourfully about real things, from visits with her family-she is the daughter of internationally acclaimed artists Molly Lamb Bobak and Bruno Bobak-to simple pleasures like arranging bowls of pears and hearing the owls in the woods at dusk. She writes about making bonfires, sitting with a dying horse, playing with a 700-pound sow and visiting the SPCA. Some of her tales are told with humour, some in sadness, but all tell the truth about living, observing and creating, whether at home or away.
MORE FROM ROBERT AMOS
Artists in their Studios
Where Art is Born
by Robert Amos
Artist Robert Amos gives readers a fascinating insider’s tour of studios on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands where some of Canada’s best-known artists create works.
Spanning more than 15 years of interviews and photographs, Amos has created panoramic collages of these artists' creative spaces, and even more revealing images with his words. Not merely biography, Amos includes examples of completed works, and the insight that only another artist, and talented arts writer, can.
Artists in Their Studios is both a stunning compilation of our Canadian artistic heritage, and proof that art work in progress is art in itself.
Enter the studios of: Robert Amos, Colin Graham, Ron Parker, Sarah Amos, Ted Harrison, Myfanwy Pavelic, Nixie Barton, Harry Heine, Jerry Pethick, Robert Bateman, Martin Honisch, Geoffrey Rock, Pat Martin Bates, E.J. Hughes, Carole Sabiston, Maxwell Bates, Fenwick Lansdowne, Duncan Regehr, Maarten Schaddelee, Zhang Bu, Grant Leier, Phyllis Serota, Emily Carr, Miles Lowry, Godfrey Stephens, Pat Cook, Judy McLaren, Norman Yates, Len Gibbs, Wayne Ngan, Jimmy Wright, Jim Gordaneer, Peggy Walton Packard.
Inside Chinatown
Ancient Culture in a New World
